Absorbent material.



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Patented Jan. 16, 1906.

Application led July 25, 1904. Serial N0. 217,971.

To all whom, t may concern,-

Be it known that I, WILLARD R. GREEN, a citizen of the United States, residing in Muscatine, in the county of Muscatine and State of Iowa, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Absorbent Materials, of which the following is a specication.

This invention relates to absorbent materials for hygienic and surgical purposes, the object being to furnish such a material adapted to be made mainly or wholly of wood that shall have an active absorptive capacity combined with efficiency in the distribution and retaining capacity of the material for the absorption and retention of fluid and semiuid substances.

In the drawings accompanying and forming a part of this specication, Figure 1 is a perspective view illustrative of a mass of absorptive material made in accordance with my present improvements. Fig. 2 illustrates one way of putting up or packing the material for market by making the same in the form of a sheet which is then formed into a roll of a suitable size and proportions to suit the requirements of the trade. Fig. 3 is a somewhat-enlarged view of a small quantity of material for further illustrating'in a somewhat diagrammati'c way certain features characteristic of the material.

Similar characters of reference designate like parts in all the views.

One of the principal objects of my present invention is to provide an absorbent material adapted to be manufactured from materials which are abundant and of very low cost as compared with the price of cotton and flax; also, to furnish such a material of superior qualities and efficiency as an absorbent for use in taking up fluid and semiuid substances; also, to furnish a material adapted to be used as a substitute for absorbent cotton f or absorbent linen in many of the applications for which those materials have heretofore been employed.

When cotton or linen bers are used in the form of an ordinary bat or unorganized mass of ber, the tendency of the bers is to yield almost instantly under the influence of fluids, especially water, and when wetted to saturation to settle and pack more closely together, thereby forming a compact surface portion on the mass, which surface portion or layer then operates to prevent the passage of more fluid into the interior of the mass. Besides having these and other well-known objeclfor the manufacture of paper.

tions the demand for cotton and linen ber in other arts has made the same so expensive that a much cheaper material has become commercially of exceptional importance.

My present improvement has as one of its objects to furnish an eicient'kind of absorbent material adapted to be made chiefly or wholly of wood and adapted to be used vas a substitute for absorbent cotton andv for otherfabsorbent" so-called HvegetableH fibers.

With these objects in view in the manu-` facture of my improved absorbent material (indicated by E, Figs. 1 and 2) I select a suitable wood or woods-such, for instance, as bass, spruce, or other suitable timber-and manufacture the same into two kinds of,

stock. One kind of this stock, as 16, Figs. 2 and 3, is prepared by mechanically dividing or shaving a quantity of wood into strands, each of which, however finely divided it may be,.is made upv of many fibers and is to a large extent of a ribbon-like formation, yet

lpreferably of such small dimensions as to have a character somewhat analogous to the socalled Ifvegetable fibers; but in practice the woody strands so prepared may be considerably larger and more rigid than the vegetable ber, such as cotton or linen or wood ber, and can be more properly described as excelsior, which may be of various grades and sizes of neness, according to the particular purpose to which it is to be put. Another i portion of the wood I prepare by a cutting or grinding treatment-such, for instance, as

commonly employed in the production of wood ber for use in making wood-pulp Such a ber stock consists of bers that are relatively quite ne and which are also of comparatively short length. This ne ber (indicated crudely by 18) may in practice have a small amount only of some cementitious material, preferably a light sizing, incorporated therewith, not enough, however, to make the mass firm or non-absorptive, and in some IOO lIO

distributed withinthe mass of fiber. The coarser stock or strands then essentially retains its natural woody character as compared with the fiber from whichthe woody characteristics largely disappear in the manufacturing operations to which the wood is subjected for disintegration and separation into its ultimate liber component. In the material when thus built up the mass of coarse and more rigid woody strands contained in the absorbent material constitute a kind of interior support somewhat in the nature of a framework for containing and sustaining the mass of ber, so that it may be said there are two component masses which are so incorporated together as, practically speaking, to concurrently occupy one space. It will be evident that if the strands were organized or combined together in the manner indicated and should then be used alone sucha mass would, unless undulypacked, have a large proportion of its interior space consist of spaces or channels of such relatively large size as would give them a low capillary or retaining power. Beside this the mass might be of too harsh and rough a nature for some of the purposes for which absorptive fibrous materials are required. By distributing among the woody strands a relatively large `mass or quantity of the wood fiber the relatively large interior spaces which would otherwise exist in the material are divided up by the 'fibers extending into and through such spaces and channels, with the result of developing a higher and more active capillary and absorptive power in the mass of material considered as a whole. Thus the relatively firm and stable strands, these retaining in a large measure their original woody nature, operate to keep the entire mass open and expanded, the softer and finer fiber stock being separated and kept free of undue compression, and thereby preserving in a high degree the open and porous character of the absorbent mass.

In the improved absorbent material made up as herein described the material consists of two portions of wood, of which portions one of them is divided to Jform strands retaining their woody compositionhthat is, retaining the gums and other materials by which the true fiber, considered strictly as such, is held together and built up into the strands of which the wood is composed. When separated from the woody composition-that is, freed from the cementitious or analogous component or materials by which the ultimate wood fiber is built up into the strands ordinarily so designated-the resulting fibers are of a short and very fine character. The wood fiber separated from its original woody composition forms the filling portion of the absorbent mass, the two kinds of stock being mingled together, so that the filling portion of iine fiber is alternated and incorporated with the coarser stock or woody strands. These two .kinds of stock then together form and produce the capillary and fluid-retaining interstices of the mass. The larger supporting-strands of the mass, even when made from wood by very finely dividing the same, naturally retain their woody composition and characteristics, since they are not divested of the composition of material by which the wood is built up from the fine and relatively short fiber that constitutes its fiber component. rfhis fiber component when sov separated becomes essentially a distinctive material having quite different characteristics from its combinations as originally existing in the wood.

The strands of wood naturally constitute a species of framework or open mass within and along which the wood filaments or fibers are interspersed, and the result of this mode of building up the mass produces an absorbent mass of material having, in a sense, the character of a sponge, in that the mass has relatively large conduits or channels distributed therein within which the fluids may pass along, as in a small stream, while scattered throughout the mass there are smaller masses intermediate and connecting the various conduits or distributing channels and which have a relative capillary action for taking up and then tending to hold in place the absorbed fluids supplied thereto through the distributing conduit-spaces. Among the natural materials a sp onge is peculiarly distinguished by this relation of the larger and smaller spaces,which have, as between themselves, distinctly diiiierent kinds of action, the structure of the mass also being such, in the case oi a sponge particularly, as it is also in my improved absorbent material, of holding the mass up nearly to the normal full size notwithstanding a large amount of fluid may have been absorbed therein. In the case of the wood fiber the absorbed fluids tend to mat or felt the mass so as to make it more compact and therefore less capable of receiving and holding a large amount of fluid, and this leads to what is called sliming over, particularly in the case of fluids which are slightly viscid or tend to coagulation. With my improved material, owing in part to the frame-like nature of the woody strands, the mass is not readily compacted or largely reduced in volume by the absorption ofthe fluid,in this important respect having a character as already pointed out analogous to the sponge. These features distinguish my present irnprovements in absorbent materials from all those combinations of materials heretofore made up of mixtures of various kinds of fiber-such, for instance, as those in which cotton and disintegrated wood-pulp are employed, the latter being held in place by and between the layers of cotton fibers, which themselves collapse on being wet. Absorb- IOO IIO

ent materials thus built up are open to the objection described of felting or matting under the action of the fluid and are particularly objectionable on account of the freedom with which they slime over, and thus become ineffective in practice.

By the use of wood for the strands of the mass I avoid the necessity of subjecting the wood to disintegrating processes and consequently save the expense of the same, besides being able to utilize the wood in a new manner in such materials, since it is in my improved material a relatively large, strong, and resistant component of the mass adapted for receiving in the interstices thereof a relatively considerable quantity of wood fiber which would not otherwise have the requisite supporting qualities nor be able when used by itself to maintain the large conduit spaces for quickly distributing relatively large quantities of iiuid to the smaller capillary spaces which are distributed throughout the mass. It should be noted that one of the qualities of these capillary spaces is iirst to take up the fluid and then to resist the dislodgment or discharge of the iuid therefrom, whereas the larger conduit-spaces make very slight resistance to the passage of the small stream therethrough and have relatively slight, if any, power of holding the fluid therein against the action of gravity or against the power of suction.

The absorbent material herein shown and described is for hygienic and surgical purposes in the form of bandages or otherwise, and the term surgical purposes in the claim is intended to cover such uses.

Having thus described my invention, I claim- An absorbent material for surgical purposes comprising commingled eXcelsior and wood fiber.

Signed at Nos. 9 to 15 Murray street, New York, N. Y., this 27th day of June, 1904.

' WILLARD R. GREEN.

Witnesses:

FRANCIS H. RICHARDS, FRED. J. DOLE. 

